Samwise Hikes the Appalachian Trail! - Trail Journal -
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August 26, NH 112 Kinsman Notch - mile 1779.1

Today was a day of some exciting firsts. My first mountain above the tree line - Mt Moosilauke - and my first day with less than 400 miles to go! Although if the Whites are all this hard, as the SOBOs would have us believe, I'm definitely going to need replacement knees when I finish. Yikes, what a knee-screamer Moosilauke was. But the view from the top was extraordinary. In fact, I'm having a hard time defining the experience in words. Though these peaks are not as high as western mountains, they still rise so high above me that they seem almost unconquerable. From a distance, they look utterly massive and overwhelming, and yet, if you just keep hiking up the trail, suddenly you're on top of them. After I left the summit today and got about a mile down, I was able to look back up at it, and I just couldn't believe that I had just been up there. Amazing.

Well, I've got to get to sleep early tonight, as I barely got any last night. We all stayed up late, sitting around the fire and listening to the few who can sing and play guitar. I finally drifted off to bed, but then I was up just about every hour making a mad dash to the bathroom. What blessed timing to have had a flush toilet last night! I thought I was over the bug in my system but apparently not. I am very happy that everything is holding still at the moment, and has been since I got on the trail this morning. Hopefully that was the last hurrah and now I'm back to normal.

P.S. Saw another bear today ! That makes #8